Are Indian drivers closet Formula 1 drivers or just plain suicidal

Goandentist

About the "horning" ! Do u know that in india its considered an isult if u overtake without honking first ... and the exact opposite in the rest of the world ! It takes some time to get used to the noise but thats one indian specaility u are not going to forget easily .

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salima

right away i realized that indian drivers are fantastic-they are AWARE of their surroundings and i am never afraid with any of them. in america, i am scared to death to ride in a car at all though i have lived there all my life because i know no one sees anything outside their car ecept other cars. i have been hit twice as a pedestrian in america. most american drivers follow the rules like robots even if common sense and reality dictate that there are exceptions. in india animals can sleep in the middle of the road knowing they will be accomodated, while in america if an animal wanders near the road it will most likely be run over. falling debris from trucks on the highway and animals in the road are not covered in the rulebooks so american drivers are not prepared. (for those who dont know me, i am an american. i dont drive)

however, i notice new delhi drivers are getting a lot more americanized. if you listen, you will hear the difference in the way they honk the horn in different cities. in bombay it sounds like 'my car is bigger' and in new delhi it says 'get the hell out of my way i am in a hurry' . but in bhopal it sounds like music, a definite rhythm and melody that says 'pardon me, passing you' or 'be careful'. in new delhi you will see a number of small accidents on any given day, but in bhopal very maybe one or two in a year.

city driving is what i am talking about. on the roads between towns with the buses and the trucks and motorcycles there are other issues like having to hurry to keep your job and make more money, and being asleep or drunk

it surprises me that there arent lots of indian race car drivers because i think they would definitely be able to dominate the sport.

torryquine

Yes we noticed this, between cars and bikes come: cows, elephants, camels, horses, bullocks, then.. autorickshaws, motorbikes, cycle-rickshaws.. after bikes it's pedestrians.

We (mostly) loved driving in India too and had some amazingly skilled drivers. They all took such great care not to hurt anything - dogs, ducks, chickens, you name it. I was actually astounded by the lack of roadkill - others may have had a different experience, but compared to the carnage of Scotland in the lambing season, two dogs was pretty good going for the thousands of miles we travelled in a month.

However, driving at night is a different experience altogether. Due to a combination of events (as happens in India), we found ourselves taking a ten hour drive from Guwahati to Dibrugarh on Christmas night. By the time we reached our destination I was cowering behind the driver in a semi-foetal position! Convoys of TATA's screaming down the road towards you are an awsome sight in daylight, but when all you can see are the rows of headlights, it's a terrifying experience. Add to that the apparent game of 'chicken' that particular driver engaged in with the said TATA's and you'll understand why I hit the Honeybee Brandy HARD when we finally got to Dibrugargh.

Like a lot of things in India though, after about a week it all starts to feel quite normal (which it is of course) and you begin to understand how it all works. By the time we left, my husband was gagging to have a go behind the wheel. Driving at 60mph felt decidedly odd when we got home.

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machadinha

It's funny Torryquine, I got into a habit of wanting to sit upfront of buses with the driver to "check out the scene" but I often wish I never had. During the daytime you just get to see too many of the near-collisions to give you much peace of mind (my very first bus trip out of Delhi on that notorious Grand Trunk Road or what's it called involved the driver misjudging someone -- not -- stopping before him actually and so getting his front window shield smashed. After a bit of the classic all-of-the-passengers-hanging-out-in-the-dust-amidst-much-heated-debate -- talk about being in a movie! --, and never to be taken aback, we simply continued the journey with much glass shards flying through the cabin for the rest of the journey of course, the driver and his hubby never so much as bothered to clean out the remains of the windshield.) Then at night and trying to get some sleep this would fail because every time you'd nod off there'd be some oncoming headlights blazing through your closed eyelids. At least in a bus you feel protected by size somewhat, I had the good fortune to be taken for a car ride a few times and it must be that more intimidating yes, I remember the blind overtaking at full speed in a right uphill curve to be particularly exhilerating.

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ddevadatta

Yes driving in parts of India can be crazy and scary. As an expatriate, I do not have the nerve to drive in India. Let me mention why I think I am totally incapable of driving, even though I own a limousine and van company.

When I drive in the USA (where I have lived some 24 years) I have gotten used to knowing the predictable rules of driving. In India, however, in order to survive, the driver needs to anticipate how the other vehicle is gonna break the rule and then adjust accordingly.

This is where the horn comes in. He is telling the other he is just about to break the rule(s) and he is warning the other to adjust accordingly. Driving in India is far more sophisticated and mortals such as me cannot make the necessary adjustment.

So I drink a lot of scotch and get into the vehicle and hope that the scotch doesn't wear-off before I reach my destination. Happy travels, honking, and safe travels.

snowcrab

Do Indian drivers get caught up in "road rage"? It seems to be on the increase here. Drivers will become so incenced at being "cut off", usually someone making an inadequately signaled lane change, that they will rush up beside them, force the other vehical off the road and sometimes even haul the other driver out and assault them. Pretty scary, I'd rather listen to horns.

vinayverma

I call it 'Diciplined 'Mess'..yes they are!!!!!
wanna free ride in Delhi......ask me.

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Hippie at Heart

SIMLA: Indian bovine maybe an animal but far too smarter then their overseas counterparts. I have actually seen few cows working at a somewhat loosened water tap at those public charity water holes, needling the tap in such a way that its water flow mechanism aligned to perfect and they can drink!!! Not to mention cows have uncanny ability to home (those you see on roads knows they are not wanted or been driven out again after milking) while the same cant be said about a buffalo.

Ok back to drivers again. Much has been discussed about driving abilities or rather inabilities of Indian drivers, while I say the whole idea about driving here is very subconscious and pertains more to ‘adjusting gaps, other cars, buses, trucks, cows, dogs, pedestrians etc’ even the apparent chaos was well cared and followed to hilt with unwritten codes of driving and morals. Such chaos have been hammed down in Indian subconscious mind in a way that they don’t appear any different from the life lived here as an Indian. We know what our roads are capable of and just how far we can take liberties with speed. No one willingly wants to land up in jail for road rage, except drunks and loonies.

I don’t think there is much of a speed freak in me but I again say, inherent limits of speed wont allow us to kill other road users wantonly. We are a poor nation while owing four wheelers is a pretty costly idea let alone trying to demolish that precious contraption. In American contrast, as a benchmark, we buy an entry level Hyundai Accent here for over 5 lakh rupees while the same sell in USA for almost little over 3 lakh, now see this against the kind of earning an average Indian have. Our cars are just not so sophisticated or roads as high speed oriented that you want to go to a car software hacker, pay him $ 300 to reverse engineer your car computer softer ware and tweak it for extra 20 BHP so you can go full blast.

Someone mentioned truck drivers top on the road cast system and apparent numero uno with a streak of reckless devil in them. I totally disagree with that and in my opinion they fare much batter then bus or car drivers. One simple reason they just cant afford to be such loonies is because the load factor they carry, which is always rather overload. Secondly most trucks here don’t have any mechanism to separate the driver cabin from actual load behind. Driving such a device with bare wooden plank between them and god knows how many tons at back, you just cant expect those guys to be reckless in driving or braking very hard. So when on highway and loaded they clip along at easy 60 KMPH, and only time they appear to be bullies is because they cant brake hard just because some punny car driver think he has a right to zip from his side.

Sure enough they like horning but I guess it is some kind of private code between them that truckers all over India understand. Like if you overtake a truck after due ritual of horning and when you are ahead you still honk, in most cases he is likely to return your honk with a long hoot of his own. I guess it goes like, thanks for pass mate * honk*, its ok you are welcome *hooot*

Nick-H

H-at-H... interesting post, and what you say is probably true of most people most of the time. I could talk like that about London driving!

But how many daily newspapers do not carry reports of fatal accidents (mishaps)? regretably few, I'm afraid. Many of these involve trucks or buses. Newspaper articles also bemoan the lack of experience or proper training of many truck drivers.

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Hippie at Heart

“Newspaper articles also bemoan the lack of experience or proper training of many truck drivers.”
I somewhat agree to the idea of truckers and bus drivers not up to date with training aspect. But I attribute more of this to the failure of political will and organised planning by the pansy beurocrats who knows what can be done but won’t. Not to mention the utter paucity of funds allocation for such schemes given general lack of concern for human life at almost every level. About truckers its just not road training but many other things as well, they are like a time bomb trudging up and down the entire length of India spreading AIDS like no tomorrow. Any given day I feel like giving a good sock to those crazy little yuppies zipping dangerously in city traffic or those shameless twats who just cant learn to undo a simple fact about driving with low beam in city wherever there is adequate street light available. Sadly there is no such mechanism to control such people. Traffic police who is an extended arm of state police is just not geared up to control traffic violations except serving a ticket ‘when found indulging on spot’. Indian constabulary and police officers inherited only those legacies that brits left, to control the mobs and not providing any meaningful policing to the masses.

sudheer poppa

Strange that I have not heard anyone mentioning about the private busses in Kerala !!!

Its truly amazing how the driver - conductor duo (its a real conductor as against the guy who gives tickets in other places) takes racing to a new height in the narrow crowded streets of Kerala. Those who have seen it once, would not forget it ever.

Those rides are what my daugther loves more than the amusemnet parks... Whooooshhhhhh....

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davey

[IMG] I took this shot between delhi and agra

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Billy H

just back from three weeks in the south, mainly kerala.... naturally all the drivers seem to be on a suicide mission which is freaky at the start but you get used to ... on a serious note nearly every day in the local newspaper there were stories about fatal accidents involving motorbikes being hit by trucks or buses that were passing another vehicle out.

At the very least they should introduce a rule that says a driver should slow down when he / she enters a town.......

rangss

I am born here in India. No that wasn't a boo-boo. I die everytime I go on the road and am miraculosly born again everytime I return home.

Kismet, fate, karma, dharma, moksha, nirvana, monkey sense...you name it...whatever it is, it keeps me alive.

I travelled India by buses extensively and every time I sat in a bus, the worst possible accident loomed in front of my eyes. Every time my train crossed the Godavari River, the thought of the train slipping the rails and plunging into the deep waters always played in front of my eyes. I stood on the doorway peeping out when my rickety little train that oscillated across the Pamban Rail Bridge near Rameswaram wondering what would happen if the train were to tilt over and fall into the sea below. Hey! nothing ever happened.

So relax. Do not read the reports of all those gory accidents. Sit back and enjoy the drive.

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rangss

To add...last week, my car met with the worst accident in its lifetime...some drunk idiot grazed its behind and broke the tail lights assembly...when my car was parked. the guy was reversing his car.